Hand-Me-Downs

If you're a little brother who has to wear your older brother's old clothes, the chances are good that...

your pants are a little too long or...

a little too short.

Self-portrait Tuesday: Laughing to Tears

So this is today's self-portrait. I actually looked like this at 8:30 this morning - showered, dressed, hair, make-up. No easy feat. And nothing to laugh at. (I hope...)

No, the self-portrait that still makes me laugh until I cry is this one:


BWAAHAHHAHAHHAHAAAAAA!

Okay, at this point you probably have several very pertinent questions something along the lines of:

1. What the mother-loving-heck is your family doing?
2. Why is Josh not wearing his burka?
3. Besides the obvious fact that you all look pretty silly, why is this picture so amusing to you?

Well, let's start with the first question. Answer: we were dressing up like ghosts, what's it look like we're doing?! Oh - why dressing up like ghosts? Okay, well, remember how I really need a family portrait so I can make it a Halloween portrait for our party? I am having zero success with that. No matter how hard I try, we can't get a decent picture of our family. Probably because doing timed pictures with three little boys = no chance of success. So here was my thought process to solve this little problem:

"Hmmm... I need a family portrait. But we all look terrible in all the pictures we take. But I need one for the donut party. The donut party's theme this year is ghosts. Hey!! Why don't we all put sheets over us and take a picture?! That way it doesn't matter what we look like! I could even use Photoshop and erase our feet so it looks like we're real ghosts. All I have to do is get everyone to at least stand still for 15 seconds. How hard could that be?"

As it turns out, it was VERY HARD. The above picture was the best of the bunch, I'm not exagerating.

Okay, question number two. Answer: because Josh is Josh. Fifty percent of the time I have no idea why he does the things he does. Okay, that's a lie. It's more like seventy-five percent of the time. Oh yes, we had told him to keep his ghost costume on, and he had kept it on for all of the other pictures. But not this one.

And finally, question number three. Answer: again we turn our attention to Josh. Because he just looks so darn Joshie in the picture. And he's standing at a tilt, and that's so cute. And he's smiling because I told him to smile. But maybe he's also smiling because he realized how dumb we all looked and decided to take his costume off for the picture so he could look good. It might not make any sense to you, but even as I type I'm giggling crazily.

Oh man. Even if I don't get a family portrait in time, that picture was totally worth it.

Little Boy Lyrics

Josh sometimes likes to sing to himself. He usually stops if he thinks someone is listening to him, but every once in a while he'll get absorbed in the song and not notice.

Usually it's some variation of a common song, but sometimes he makes up his own music and words. Those songs are my favorite.

My favorite lyrics today?

"Then the extra pillooooowww ate alllllll of the cookies!"

I love it.

All morning I was making up stories in my head about a sneaky extra pillow that slips around unnoticed, stealing any extra baked goods that happen to be unguarded for a moment.

Man, I love my kids.

Joshie's Risky Business

Does This Shirt Make Me Look Fat?

Shout Out to Tiffany - Wuh Wuh!!

Whoa - two shout outs in one week. But both are completely deserving.

TIFFANY, YOU ROCK!!!!!!!

Tiffany recommended that I use Rit White Wash to fix the shirt I ruined that I mentioned yesterday.


It totally worked. I am a complete believer. I'm buying five boxes the next time I'm at the store.

Tiffany: world's best primary chorister and laundry problem solver. (What I'm trying to say is, thanks. :)

Bread of the Month: Braided Cinnamon Raisin Egg Bread

I'm having an 'off' week. Really off. Yesterday I ruined my brand new very cute white collared shirt. A rogue colored article of clothing made it into the whites and spotted a few things. And since it was just a few things I didn't notice until after they came out of the dryer and I was putting them away. I loved that shirt; I had only worn it once. I've tried everything to fix it. So sad. So very sad.

I keep getting people's names confused. I was a disaster at my presidency meeting tonight. Debra-Deedra. Michelle-Melissa. Spencer-Josh-Cole-Lance. Just ask Ginger. I mean Gigi. Bah! Whatever.

And then there's this bread I made. Don't worry - I didn't fail like last month. On the contrary, the bread turned out very well. But I still had issues. See, when I was making the bread I though I would need both racks in the oven, so I took out the pizza stone. It was hot so I put it on a large cork trivet on the counter. A few minutes later I realized I wouldn't need both racks, so I put the stone back in. With the cork trivet still stuck underneath. Only I didn't realize the trivet was there. And then I put the bread in to bake and went to pick Spencer up from school.

I'm just lucky the house didn't burn down.

Needless to say, the house did not smell like freshly baked bread when we came home. It smelled like freshly burned cork, which is not an aroma I recommend.

But... the bread still turned out great! I think it had a slightly corky aftertaste, but no one else seemed to notice, so I guess that worked out alright.

So. Good recipe. Bad trivet. Crazy Maren.

Let's get started.

I got this recipe from my trusty Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book, which I got as a High School graduation present from my parents. Other kids were getting cars, cash, parties; I got a cookbook. I certainly didn't see the wisdom in it then.


But I do now. Thanks, Mom and Dad.


When I bake I like to get all of my ingredients out before I get started. It's just easier.


The raisins weren't on the counter. They were in the microwave getting plumped up. Because just like women, raisins are better when they're a little plump. I'm just sayin'...


For this recipe you're supposed to heat the milk, sugar, butter, and salt. I always do this in the microwave - way easier.


You want to get the milk warm and the butter to just start melting, like this. (Not too hot, or it will kill the yeast.)


So you do the whole mixy thing, and make sure the gluten gets all gluteny. We've been through all of this before. Eight times before, in fact.

Before I put this raisins into the batter I decided to add some cinnamon. Good choice, Maren.


My magical, wonderful mixer did all the work, kneaded the dough right up, and then I let it raise for an hour. It came out like this.


Breathtaking.

Okay, it looks a little weird. But that's because of all those plumped up raisins.

I separated the dough into six equal pieces, let it rest, and then rolled the pieces into 16" ropes. Actually, rolled isn't really the right word. More like smooshed; the dough was a little sticky and weird and rolling just wasn't working.

Time for the braiding. (How exciting! I've never braided bread!) Take three of the ropes and place them an inch apart on the pan.


Take the left rope and put it under the center rope.


Take the right rope and put it under the new center rope.


Finish the braid at the bottom and press and tuck the ends so they stick together.


Then you finish the top of the braid, doing the same. Voila!


I have to admit, by the time they were done with their second raising I was pretty proud of myself. Don't they look awesome?


They looked even more awesome after they were (cork-enhanced) baked.


Mmmmm... braided raisiney goodness.


Whew.

Next month: bread that actually works and doens't smell bad when baked!

Shout Out to Oxiclean - Wuh wuh!

Living in a house with three little boys (and one big boy) makes for very, very messy carpets. Very. I try my best to keep them clean, but a momma can only do so much, you know?


This mystery stain appeared quite a while ago. I have no idea what made it or who the culprit is. All I know is that no matter what I tried it would not come out. Water, Simple Green, Resolve, steam cleaning - NOTHING worked. I had almost given up.

But yesterday I was shopping at the Wal-Marts and I saw this:


I have purposely never bought Oxiclean before mainly because I found the commercials so obnoxious. But I was desperate and decided to give it a try. (Plus, I figured if it didn't work I could just use it in the wash.)

Well. I. Am. Im. Pressed.


I can't believe it! The stain is gone! All gone! I am completely, totally, and happily satisfied. And I can't wait to tackle all of the other stains around the house.

The Week in Numbers

• Loads of laundry: 14
• Meals prepared: 20
• Meals that fell apart so that I had to resort to ordering pizza: 1
• Tantrums: lost count after 25
• Diapers changed: 39,520
• Messes cleaned: 83 and counting
• Beatles songs sung to a cranky baby: 6 (Here Comes the Sun, A Hard Day's Night, Yellow Submarine, Help!, I Am the Walrus, and Love Me Do)
  
• Bugs that flew down my throat: 2 (what's up with that?!)
• Weird Al songs sung to a 3 and 5 year old: 2 (Eat It and The Saga Begins)
• Times I ate leftover pasta salad that I made for the neighborhood picnic on Saturday (we showed up late and most people had already eaten): 8
• Times Joshie said "You're mean, Mommy!": 4
• Times Joshie tried to sweet-talk me into giving him a cookie: 8
• Times it worked: 2
• Times Spencer hit Josh: 5
• Times Spencer went to time out for hitting Josh: 5
• Times Josh deserved to be hit: 5 (Okay, no one deserves to be hit. But if I were Spencer I would've done the same thing.)
  
• Times I was spit up on: 48,108
  

Brothers

Now that Cole is a bit more developed and well on his way in showing us more of his personality, friends, family, and random people I see at the Wal-Marts have started commenting on who they think he looks like. People at church think he looks like Lance or Josh. Family tends to say he looks like Spencer. And friendly random Wal-Mart employees say he looks like me.

Me? I think he looks just like my other babies. Only more Cole-ish. He is also a good mix of Spencer and Josh personality-wise. On the whole, he's pretty laid back and cheerful in a very Spenceresque way. But if something rubs him the wrong way or if he's not fed RIGHT THEN, boy, his cranky Joshie side comes out. (Random side note - he's my first baby that won't be soothed by nursing. For Spencer and Josh it was the magic cure-all. For Cole, if he's upset ain't nothin' gonna calm him down until he's worn himself out.) (Fun.)

When I saw Cole for the first time after he was born the first thing that popped out of my mouth was "He looks just like the other two." Poetic, no? (I blame the drugs/stress/fact that my innards were splayed out for the world to see.) But it was the truth. He really did look like the other two. See for yourself:

For fun I found a few pictures of each of the boys around the same age. Who do you think they look like? Lance? Me? Only each other?

Spencer-bencer

Joshie-boshie

Cole-boley

Me? I think they all look like adorable Madsen babies.

Fat Babies are Happy Babies

Spencer's Blair Witch Project

Yesterday we were getting ready to give the boys haircuts in the back yard. While we were waiting for Daddy we played 'ghost'. Very fun. Even more fun once we gave Spencer the camera.

Watch until the very end - very Blair Witch-like.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Family Portrait

I've been trying to get a good family portrait of us, but with no luck. This is bad for two reasons: 1) we still don't have a decent picture of the five of us together; Cole deserves to be in the family picture above our piano! 2) I need a family picture to use in my Halloween Family portrait that I make every year. (Very important, right?)

Well, Spencer decided to help me out:


To a momma, that's just one of the cutest things in the world. I love it.


Who the parent with the huge noggin' is varies on who Spencer is talking to. When he talks to me, Daddy has the big head and I'm the tall leggy one. When he talks to Lance it's the other way around.

Smart kid.

Gorilla Brars

This morning it took me a full two minutes to realize that this is what Josh wanted when he kept asking for "gorilla brars".

My Charmng Chubby Bubby

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Self-portrait Tuesday: Baby Hugs

No time for make-up.

Plenty of time for baby hugs.